<p><strong>Visual Anthropology: Documentary Filmmaking Workshop. Portraits of emotional Belonging.</strong></p> <p>Taught by Thomas John, Doctoral Researcher, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology FU Berlin & Associate Lecturer, Dept. of Social and Cultural Anthropology WWU Münster</p> <p><a href="https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ethnologie/en/personal/lehrbeauftragte/thomasjohn.html">https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ethnologie/en/personal/lehrbeauftragte/thomasjohn.html</a> Students produce a short documentary film for this class to gain practical experience in film production and to learn how to use audio-visual media as a fieldwork method and representational output. Usually students work in small teams of 2-3 students. They will get basic training in camera and editing techniques. The Institute of Ethnology offers a limited number of equipment. However, the aim is to produce an anthropologically informed film that gives an insight into a social/cultural reality. The students are expected to do a short fieldwork research within the summer term, going hand in hand with the production of their film projects. Next to the practical emphasis of this class we will read into a few relevant theoretical and methodological perspectives on Audio-Visual Anthropology. Relevance: It becomes increasingly important but also requisite to communicate social and cultural sciences not only through classic academic text publications, but also through other media formats such as audio-visual and multimodal forms of media. The demand is to become more accessible for a broader public in order to gain political and social relevance and impact. Still, there is a great lack of social and cultural scientists who are at the same time able to apply and to bring across their social, cultural and political scientific knowledge as media outputs other than a written academic text. (That is not to say that the latter is not very valuable, too!) Thematic: The thematic focus of this workshop is ”Belonging”. Students produce their films about Belonging in Münster. They research into people’s senses, practices, politics and experiences of affective and emotional belonging. We look at how people ‘practice’ belonging to render oneself part of a group and ask if people can feel multiple and at times conflicting or contrary emotions of belonging. Where or to whom do people desire to belong to? How do people feel that they are part of and included in a social community and how do they experience the contrary: exclusion? Belonging implies also its counterpart meaning exclusion and not-belonging. Guided by the instructor students are expected to develop their own documentary film and research project. We will read into a few selected theoretical perspectives on Belonging to accompany research and filmmaking. Depending on their interests students might research on belonging in a family context, a migration context, a social media environment, a student dorm, a local sports club, activist’s community, or other association/social group.</p> <p>In addition to the scheduled course teaching there will be individual meetings with each group to guide the research and film production process.</p> <p>Students of the Seminar are invited to join our excursion to the German International Ethnographic Film Festival, May 25 – 29 2022.</p> <p>Preparations: 1. Read an article on belonging by Wise 2010 Wise, Amanda (2010): ”Sensuous Multiculturalism. Emotional Landscapes of Inter-Ethnic Living in Australian Suburbia”, in: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(6), 917-937. You can e-mail the instructor (thomas.john@fu-berlin.de) to request the PDF of the article in case you have trouble accessing the article Wise 2010 2. Write up a short research and film proposal of max. one page and send it to thomas.john@fu-berlin.de before the first session 09.04.2022</p> <p>Note: please sign up for this course at Learnweb, too.</p>
- Lehrende/r: Thomas John